LA trip...LOTS of pictures

LA Trip

We took a family vacation to visit my brother, my sister in law and niece in LA. My mom, sister and grandparents went too. We had a wonderful time and the weather was beautiful! The highs in LA were our lows here at home. It was nice just to get away and enjoy time with the family.

 

The week we were supposed to leave for our trip Nathan got quite sick.. He had high fevers for 4 days with no other symptoms. We took him to the pediatrician and she said it was probably roseola or hand/foot/mouth disease and that we should expect a rash to follow the fever. His fever finally broke the day before we left for LA however, he never had a rash. We were more worried that he would get his cousin sick, but the Dr. assured us he was not contagious if he had been fever free for more than 24 hours. Needless to say, with Nathan not back to 100% he was a smidgen fussy the whole time we were visiting.

 

IN the bucket at the airport ready to go through the x-ray machine!! At least all the TSA workers had a good sense of humor that morning!

 His cousin was very excited to see him again.....Poor Maeva, Na

than was just not feeling the love!

 ON Saturday morning we took the kids to Griffith Park. they had Pony rides and a train ride. The park is beautiful and it was so nice to be outside past 9am without sweating to death!!

I know what to get Nathan for Christmas....a Pony! HE loved it! they had several different types of pony rides.. 1) for little toddlers - it had the pony's in a corral and they just went around in a circle.
2) slow walking pony's for age 3 and under that were not attached to anything, they just walked slowly around the designated trail. 3) fast pony's for the older kids.

  We started him out on the circle pony. He kept trying to make it go while they were waiting for the ride to start! He seemed so at ease and content!

 He looks like a true equestrian here as he is leaning forward!

 Next we put him on t he free walking pony. He loved it more than the first pony. He just seemed to be soaking everything in.

 He wasn't scared at all when the strange man picked him up from Dan and carried him to the pony and strapped him in. I was proud of him for being so brave!

                                               

We went on a little train ride 

           

                                          He sure does love his great Gram and Pop!
IF ever Nathan was fussing or we couldn't get him to smile, Pop always had the magic touch!!

 After the train ride we let him ride the pony again.

Funny story...... Dan wanted Nathan to be able to ride on the faster pony's but it was only for age 3 and up. So, my extreme sport husband went to the counter and tried to bribe the man with money to let Nathan ride the faster pony! Needless to say, the man did not go for it. Dan was convinced Nathan needed to ride the faster pony to get the full experience. Actually, as shown in the above picture, Nathan would look longingly at the kids on the faster pony's every time that went by him!

Maybe next year.

 Saturday night we went ot a fancy restaurant. Dan and i are not fancy restaurant people and the last restaurant we have been to with Nathan was Jason's Deli. All of that to say, I was a little nervous as to how Nathan would behave. It did not go well but it could have been worse. My sister and I spent a lot of time outside with him and his cousin during the meal.

The picture above shows a "good" moment were he was eating in his own big boy chair with a knife and fork for his prime rib!

 We all tried desperately to get a picture of the 2 cousins after dinner, since they looked so cute, but it did not work out. They would not hold still or stay close enough to each other and of course they wouldn't dare look at the camera at the same time!

 We spent alot of time each day and evening playing outside. I can not tell you how wonderful it was to have the temperature be in the 60's in the evening's instead of the 90's. It sure makes me ponder as to why I still live in Texas when I abhor the heat so much.

Sunday morning we went ot the beach. I wish we had allotted more time to stay and play. This was Nathan's first trip to the beach and he was a little unsure of the waves at first. Dan and I were playing "don't let the wave get you" and towards the end he started to warm up to the whole beach idea. In his defense the water was pretty chilly. However, he loved playing in the sand! He could have stayed all day digging and dumping the sand out of his bucket.



Sunday afternoon my brother and sister-in-law had a photographer come over to take come family photos. That was Nathan's low point. He was a awful child for those 2 hours. It was really stressful, because he would not cooperate at all and would started crying and throwing a fit when we wanted him to look at the camera or stay in a certain spot.  It was interesting, when we got home from the pictures, I just put Nathan in the pack-n-play and left him there for 45 minutes while my sister-n-;aw took Dan, Cheryl and I to look at the ever tourist spot of Hollywood Blvd.. My mom and brother stayed behind to cook dinner and my grandparents were in the same room as Nathan watching the Olympics. When we returned I had a different child. He was happy and had stopped fussing. My grandparents said he just played in the crib by himself the whole time, never squawked or fussed.
        Dan and i think he was just overstimulated, plus being out of his schedule and in an unfamiliar environment, that he just needed some alone time to reset his batteries!

Dan and Nathan on the bus ride from the car rental to the airport. Nathan loved riding in his daddy's lap and being able to look out the window like a big boy instead of stuck in his car seat. He was so good too, it was like he knew this was a special occasion.

              We knew we were back home when we walked out of the airport into 108F temperature. At least we got a weekend of respite from reality!

I am so thankful to my brother and his wife for being wonderful hosts and letting us all stay at their new home!